And when I say there are a million things to do, I'm not just referring to the typical list of training modes, time trials, or two-player matches either. Tekken 5 goes way beyond that. The game's beefy story mode, for instance, is definitely the best in the series: offering hand-drawn and fully narrated prologues that are book ended by several badass ending cinemas. What's more, is that almost every single one of these endgame movies are surprisingly humorous in nature, and are fully packed with several laugh-out-loud moments. Go ahead and try to keep a straight face when enjoying the endings for Anna, Nina, or Asuka, for example, or try not to crack a smile when Heihachi's ambitious but highly entertaining finishing moment plays through.

Another cool addition to the game is the changes that have been made to the arcade mode. Following the standard set by Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution a few years back, Tekken 5 offers players the ability to play ranked CPU opponents for a simulated arcade experience. This feature further enables users the ability to set up and name their own personal profile to keep track of how good they really are and to use that stature to earn money. This basic philosophy means that the higher the rank of your CPU opponent, the more money you'll get when you beat him -- and once you have enough gold in your reserve, you can then go ahead and spend it to get tons of bonus goodies.

These purchasable bonuses also take a queue from VF Evolution as they're primarily made up of a wide selection of customizable clothing. So if you'd much rather see Heihachi wearing an eye patch and a motorcycle helmet instead of his default outfit, you can go ahead and do that. Likewise, if you'd prefer to see Paul Phoenix wearing Legion of Doom motorcycle jackets or King adorned as royalty, you can do that too. This kind of modification is one of the primary reasons that SEGA's fighter still has so many fans today, and I can see it having the same effect for Tekken fans. It's truly an addicting little feature, and I just wish that there were even more clothing items to select.

Namco has also included a bonus action/adventure mini-game known as "Devil Within," which follows Jin Kazama as he runs around and kicks plenty of hive-minded robotic butts. Interestingly enough, Devil Within implements a completely different control scheme from the regular Tekken fighting mode -- so it may take a bit of getting used to before you can be as effective here as you are in a regular match. Personally, I preferred Tekken 4's "Tekken Force" as an action/adventure alternative, but considering the fact that this is all bonus stuff and not part of the primary experience anyway, it's really not that big a deal. Besides, I still had more fun with this than I did Death by Degrees and I absolutely had to unlock the Devil Jin (which becomes accessible by completing this feature).

Character customization adds a lot of personality to your alter ego.

The development team could have left the features list at is and still had one of the deepest fighting products around for the PlayStation 2. But in a move that has to be considered one of the best bonus additions ever, Namco has also included three arcade-perfect emulations of Tekken 1, 2, and 3. Known as Arcade History Mode, these three classics could have warranted their very own compilation disc -- so when you consider that they've been included with Tekken 5 free of charge (and with almost zero loading time), you have yourself one hell of a great deal.

The only real disappointment is that Tekken 5 is devoid of any online feature whatsoever. And while I'm always the first to concede that the PlayStation 2 doesn't exactly provide the greatest online experience around, it's still a little heartbreaking that there's absolutely no way we can compete against worldwide players without having to travel to a regional tournament first. Just imagine how cool it would have been to hop on over to Tekken Zaibatsu and challenge some of the top tier players only to face them in a matter of minutes. Or even better, what if you could call up some old pals halfway across the country for a friendly competition to remind you of the good old days? Oh well, maybe the lack of online is good thing -- since true broadband Tekken would probably rob me of sleep for a couple of months.